Tuesday, July 20, 2010

I have recently made dog bellybands for a Yorkie and have made dog bellybands for pugs, so I can contract sew dog bellybands for your dog, any custom size, you pick the fabric, usually cotton flannel is used. I added a meshy fabric pocket, so a cut up diaper cloth can be slid in and act as a "barrier". If you need to potty train your dog or puppy, or if he or she is bathroom accident prone, dog bellybands are the way to go. Best to use fabric from http://www.joann.com/ , http://www.fabric.com/ , http://www.jandofabrics.com/ , http://www.hancockfabric.com/ , and other fabric or quilt shops in your local area. I am also venturing into dog shirts, soon. The dog bellybands start at $3 for mini dog bellybands, if you provide the fabric, or starting at $5 for mini dog bellybands with fabric provided by me. Mini dog bellybands were for a Yorkie 3.5 lbs. Pug bellybands have also been made, and available starting at $7. All bellybands come with cotton flannel outer cover and lining, velcro closure, wrap style, and a meshy fabric pocket for holding cut up diaper cloth, which could be provided for $0.50 a piece extra. Custom sized dog bellybands can be sewn up. Just provide me with the width around your dog, how wide and how long you want your dog bellyband, what types of colors and designs you are looking for.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Ok, for those of you who do not know-
In color:
VALUE is how bright or dull a color is
TONE is how light or dark a color is. A lighter tone of a color is called a "tint" of that color or hue, a darker color of a hue or color, is called a "shade" of that color

Tonal, meaning it's from the same color family, hence the word, "monotoned"

If anyone tells you differently, then they didn't go to school for interior design, like I did, and get a degree in it. I detest when people pass along information that is not true.
Thank you!
Kristie

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

There is a disturbing trend in the art, licensing, and product design industries....stealing art for profit.

I was just told last week that some art directors have or are resorting to stealing art, lifting it from other small time artists' sites, to place on their line's products...would you want to buy products from a company, knowing that they lifted it from someone else's site, off of the site of someone who drew, created, painted that image, and possibly took weeks to create that image, that art? I was also told that Walmart, to their credit, refuses to steal other's art, and has reemed art directors and the like who come to them with stolen art, when being presented with product with intellectual property, creative works like art, illustrations, patterns, etc., to the buyers of Walmart.

What about contests that companies hold, where art/design students win, with lifted images off of other peoples' sites? That's happened to me. A woman in the UK, a design student, lifted an image off of my site, and won a contest with a company that I will not mention for legal reasons, and that company ran a contest for students to submit designs for a packaging and product design. Nothing against the UK, I LOVE the UK, and it hurts bc it is one of my fav countries and I love the people. And lifting happens ANYWHERE in this world, as we all know, just so happened that this lifting was done overseas.

Funny how I sent that same image to their then buyer, 8 months after creating it in October 2001, and I love how these buyers "keep your work on file for future reference...really?

Anyway, I found out that it was lifted off of my site, bc I belonged to this co's mailing list online, and saw my image one day, replicated over and over again, all over the outer packaging and the bottle/container packaging. Killed me everytime I went into one of my favorite touristy, boutique shops withing 100 mile radius and saw the item. It's weird bc from a yr before that, I saw mysterious site stats showing someone from that region, looking at that image, for like a week. The interesting thing was that that image was for my boyfriend at the time's neighbor's dog Queenie, and his photo, and the image was on a frame. I put it up on my site around 2002, and redid it, shown on various frames and whatnot over the next 2-3 years, thinking, "Ok, it's not the greatest graphic, but, I will redo it...eventually." Proves that even garbage, not up to snuff art gets lifted, I guess. I guess our doodles on paper, while waiting on the phone for customer service calls are up for lifting too. Even as recently as last month, I pointed it out to my boyfriend, seeing the item in a christmas shop, selling the thing, even though it was discontinued, I still find it in places. Well, thank goodness for http://www.archive.org/ because they record any and all objects, jpgs, webpages that have ever been uploaded to the internet, and I have backup, showing my image being uploaded as early as 2002.

There is RAMPID stealing and lifting in the art school student community, too. About 17 yrs ago, a guy was thrown out of my art school for a)lifting images off of other students interior design projects and b)having other students do his work for him. Can you imagine? Unbelievable.